1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereoscopic endoscope system and more particularly to a stereoscopic endoscope system that displays a stereoscopic video.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, endoscopes have been widely used in medical fields and other fields. In addition, there is a case where endoscopic surgeries are performed under the observation using an endoscope by forming small holes through which the endoscope is inserted to treat a diseased part and the like in the body cavity of a patient. Among such endoscopic surgeries, in an endoscopic surgery of the chest, for example, a surgeon and an assistant face each other to perform the surgery. When a surgeon and an assistant perform an endoscopic surgery while facing each other, a vertically and horizontally inverted video is required in some cases, as described with reference to the FIG. 12 below.
FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a layout of an endoscopic surgery of the chest. As shown in FIG. 12, when a surgeon 100 and an assistant 101 perform an endoscopic surgery of the chest, the surgeon and the assistant perform the surgery facing each other with a patient 102 therebetween. An endoscope 103 is inserted in the body cavity of the patient 102, and an endoscopic image picked up with the endoscope 103 is displayed on a surgeon's monitor 104 and an assistant's monitor 105.
The endoscope 103 is inserted in the body cavity of the patient 102 in the direction coincident with the field of view direction of the surgeon 100. Therefore, the up, down, right, and left directions of the endoscopic image observed by the surgeon 100 on the surgeon's monitor 104 are coincident with the up, down, right, and left directions of forceps 106, 107 which are actually operated by the surgeon 100. As a result, the forceps 106 which is operated by the surgeon 100 with the right hand is located on the lower right side in a screen 104a of the surgeon's monitor 104, and the forceps 107 which is operated by the surgeon 100 with the left hand is located on the lower left side in the screen 104a of the surgeon's monitor 104. Therefore, the forceps 106, 107 in the screen 104a of the surgeon's monitor 104 move in the same directions as the directions in which the surgeon 100 operates the forceps with the right hand and the left hand.
On the other hand, since the assistant 101 faces the surgeon 100, the up, down, right, and left directions of the forceps viewed from the assistant 101 in the space in the body cavity are opposite to the up, down, right, and left directions of the forceps viewed from the surgeon 100. However, since the endoscopic image displayed on the assistant's monitor 105 is the same as the endoscopic image displayed on the surgeon's monitor 104, the up, down, right, and left directions of the image are the same as those of the image viewed from the surgeon 100. As a result, a forceps 108 operated by the assistant 101 with the right hand is located on the upper left side in a screen 105a of the assistant's monitor 105 and a forceps 109 operated by the assistant 101 with the left hand is located on the upper right side in the screen 105a of the assistant's monitor 105. Therefore, the forceps 108 and 109 in the screen 105a of the assistant's monitor 105 move in the directions opposite to the up, down, right, and left directions in which the assistant 101 operates the forceps with the right hand and the left hand.
The assistant 101 is required to operate the forceps 108 and 109 in the directions opposite to the up, down, right, and left directions in the actual operational sense so as to move the forceps 108 and 109 in the screen 105a of the assistant's monitor 105 to appropriate positions. Such an operation leads to extremely poor operational performance for the assistant 101. Therefore, in the surgery layout as shown in FIG. 12, a vertically and horizontally inverted video is required to be displayed on the assistant's monitor 105, in order to improve the operational performance for the assistant 101.
In view of the above, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-272760, for example, discloses a surgery microscope system for displaying on an assistant's monitor an image obtained as a result of vertically and horizontally inverting the image displayed on the surgeon's monitor.
Incidentally, in recent years, a stereoscopic endoscope system capable of presenting a stereoscopic video including depth information to observers (surgeon and assistant) has been developed. The stereoscopic endoscope system includes a stereoscopic endoscope and a stereoscopic monitor. The stereoscopic endoscope picks up two endoscopic images having parallax, for the right eye and the left eye, and the stereoscopic monitor enables video signals for the right eye and video signals for the left eye, which have been picked up with the stereoscopic endoscope, to be respectively observed only with the corresponding right eye and left eye of the observer. According to such a system, the observer can grasp the depth information, which enables the observer to visually confirm the near-far relationship among tissues in the body cavity and treatment instruments, etc., the images of which have been picked up with the stereoscopic endoscope. As a result, the operational performance of the treatment instruments, etc., is improved.
Also in the case where such a stereoscopic endoscope system is applied to the layout of the endoscopic surgery of the chest as shown in FIG. 12, the operational performance for the assistant must be improved by displaying a vertically and horizontally inverted image on the assistant's monitor.